A generic direct-manipulation 3D-auditory environment for hierarchical navigation in non-visual interaction

Auditory presentation methods may significantly enhance the interaction quality during user-computer dialogue. The impact of auditory interaction methods is important in the context of non-visual interaction, where audio is the primary direct perception output modality. In a few cases, 3D-audio output techniques have been employed for providing interaction for blind users. Unfortunately, such developments have been too specialized and do not support re-usability of the implemented approaches and techniques in different contexts, where non-visual interaction needs to be realized. A generic re-usable environment has been implemented, based on 3D audio, 3D pointing, hand gestures and voice input, which is applicable in all cases that interactive hierarchically structured selections from sets of alternatives must be handled. This environment has been used to implement the hierarchical navigation dialogue in a multi- media non-visual toolkit currently under development. It is composed of a set of modules implementing re-usable functionality with which interaction for non-visual hierarchical navigation can be realized within any non-visual interaction toolkit.